The weakest studio album recorded with Jim Morrison in the group, partially because their experiments with brass and strings on about half the tracks weren't entirely successful. More to the point, though, this was their weakest set of material, low lights including filler like "Do It" and "Runnin' Blue," a strange bluegrass-soul blend that was a small hit. On the other hand, about half the record is quite good, especially the huge hit "Touch Me" (their most successful integration of orchestration), the vicious hard rock riffs of "Wild Child," the overlooked "Shaman's Blues," and the lengthy title track, a multi-part suite that was one of the band's best attempts to mix rock with poetry. "Tell All the People" and "Wishful Sinful," both penned by Robbie Krieger, were uncharacteristically wistful tunes that became small hits but were not all that good, and not sung very convincingly by Morrison.

Originally released as part of the completed recorded works 2006 box set Perception, this deluxe edition of the Doors' 1969 fourth album, The Soft Parade, is a double-disc set containing one CD featuring a newly remastered version of the album with bonus tracks and a DVD with a 5.1 Surround mix, bonus video footage, and a photo gallery. Given that the Doors catalog was remastered just seven years before this box, the sonics of these 2006s remasters are noticeable but not radically different -- the kind of subtle remastering that is significant to audiophiles who know this music intimately. This contains a hefty six bonus tracks: two takes of "Touch Me," two takes of the outtake "Whiskey, Mystics and Men," and the outtakes "Push Push" and "Who Scared You." In contrast, there are only two performances in the bonus video footage: two soundstage performances from New York in 1969, "The Soft Parade" and "Tell All the People." None of this changes the fact that The Soft Parade remains a divisive Doors album -- it's a love it or loathe it affair -- but all this bonus material helps make this deluxe edition the best-sounding, best-presented reissue of this album yet.

Info from wikipedia:

The Soft Parade is the fourth studio album by the The Doors, released in 1969.

The album met with some controversy among fans and critics due to its inclusion of brass and string instrument arrangements, as opposed to the more stripped-down sound of their earlier recordings. Fans also complained that The Soft Parade followed the lyrical formulas of previous albums, and thus was not very innovative. In reviewing the 40th anniversary remix (for the August 2007 issue of Downbeat Magazine) correspondent Dan Ouellette thought otherwise, declaring it to be "the apex" of the band's creativity.

It is also different from the Doors' other albums because a number of the song lyrics were written by the band's guitarist, Robby Krieger, partly because Jim Morrison was also working on putting together a pair of self-published poetry books.

After this album, the Doors returned to simpler styles on Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman, with just the four band members playing.

For the first time, the songs were credited to individual members (only Morrison or Krieger on the album sleeve itself are credited) as Morrison was unhappy with the line about people being told to get their guns in Krieger's "Tell All the People", although the title track had Morrison's line of "Better bring your gun".

Despite a lukewarm reception, the album became the band's fourth top ten hit album in a row and the single Touch Me was hugely successful.

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TELL ALL THE PEOPLE

It is also known by "Follow Me Down" because of the use of the phrase in the song. It was released as an A-side that same year, with "Easy Ride" as its B-side, reaching #57 in the US charts. "Tell All the People" was written by guitarist Robbie Krieger, and it was famously because of this song, that songwriting credits on the "Soft Parade" album were given to individual band members, instead of being shared by all of the band, as was the case with all of their other studio efforts. Lead singer Jim Morrison didn't want anyone to think that he had written the lyrics to "Tell All the People", as the lyrics admonishes the listeners to "get your guns".

TOUCH ME

Written by Robby Krieger, the riff is influenced by The Four Seasons "C'mon Marianne." It is notable for its extensive usage of brass and string instruments to accent Jim Morrison's vocals (including a powerful solo by featured saxophonist Curtis Amy), and was one of the most popular Doors songs. It was released as a single in December 1968. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1969.

One of the most famous television appearances of the Doors is of the group performing "Touch Me" on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour along with the single's B-side, "Wild Child". During the performance, Jim Morrison missed his cue for the lines "C'mon, c'mon" and Robby Krieger could be seen with a black eye—the result of a fight with Jim Morrison the night before.

Ian Astbury covered the song for the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of the Doors.

In Oliver Stone's 1991 biopic The Doors, Jim Morrison is portrayed as having modified the lyrics at a concert while under the influence of alcohol to make the song about oral sex.

It was also featured in the 2003 film School of Rock when Jack Black's character, Dewey Finn (while posing as Ned Shneebly), teaches Lawrence how to play the keyboard. It is included in the film's soundtrack.

At the end of the song, Morrison can be heard saying, "Stronger than dirt," which was the slogan of the Ajax household cleaning company, because the last four chords of "Touch Me" were the same as those in an Ajax commercial and as a mocking criticism of Krieger, Densmore, and Manzarek wanting to accept an offer from Buick to use "Light My Fire" in a commercial. The deal was aborted when Morrison opposed. This vocal was omitted on the single version which was a different mix.

The song frequently over the course of over 30 years has gotten a huge airplay status on classic rock radio stations, alongside "Light My Fire", "Love Her Madly", and "Roadhouse Blues".

SHAMAN'S BLUES

The song describes a shaman pleading with his ex-lover to return back to him. He states that he knows the woman's "moves and your mind" but doesn't seem to be able to sway her and bring her back to him.

The spoken segment at the end of the song was created by layering various ad-lib segments from Jim Morrison's tracks.

It was written by lead singer Jim Morrison, who, apparently (source: No One Here Gets Out Alive) hoped it would be released as a single A-side as well. Perhaps surprisingly, given that a grand total of four singles were lifted from the nine-song album, "Easy Ride" wasn't among them. Instead it ended up on the B-side of the Tell All The People single, released in 1967, which reached #57 in the US charts.

The lyrics of "Easy Ride" are more direct than many of Morrisons other songs, but in the last stanza, he delivers a set of more poetic phrases: "Coda queen now be my bride / rage in darkness by my side / seize the summer in your pride / take the winter in your stride / let's ride".

RUNNIN' BLUE

In 1969 it peaked at #64 on Billboard magazine's Pop Singles chart.

It is notable for being one of the few songs by The Doors prior to Jim Morrison's death to feature someone else on lead vocals, in this case Robby Krieger.

It is also notable for Jim Morrisons introduction, a tribute to the then recently-deceased Otis Redding:

Poor Otis, dead and gone
Left me here to sing his song
Pretty little girl with the red dress on
Poor Otis, dead and gone.

The lyrics and melody of this brief acapella introduction was taken from a Lead Belly track entitled Po' Howard (or Poor Howard on some compilations) where Jim replaced the name 'Howard' with 'Otis'. Sometimes this introduction was played at the end of the another Doors' song, When The Music's Over.

WISHFUL SINFUL

Follows the general theme of the album by incorporating elements of classical music. It reached #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.

Though many of the songs on The Soft Parade (including Wishful Sinful) were somewhat unpopular - at least amongst fans of the harder, bluesier Doors sound - at the time of the original release, many music fans today find the album to be a skillful expansion of the Doors' musical abilities.

The song was covered by pianist George Winston on his album Night Divides the Day - The Music of the Doors.

THE SOFT PARADE

This song was recorded in 1969. Many listeners believe that this and Shaman's Blues are the reminiscent of the old style as heard in the albums The Doors and Strange Days. The song contains both lyrical and melodic shifts. At the beginning of the song, Jim Morrison starts out with spoken words reminiscent of a raving Christian preacher. This part of the song is referred to as the "Petition the Lord with Prayer" section. The song then goes into a harpsichord driven slow part referred to as "Sanctuary," with lyrics such "Can you give me sanctuary, I must find a place to hide" referencing his then-current problems like the Miami and New Haven arrests. Afterwards, the beat picks up and the song progressively gets faster, and features a psychedelic pop section, followed by an upbeat, soft section before going into a wild blues-rock part that ends the song. The new, 2006 remastered album reinstates an intro before the 'Petition The Lord With Prayer' section where Morrison laments that he's "troubled deeply" by the "soft reply" of an unnamed subject.

A notable, yet rare performance of the suite was filmed for a PBS Doors television documentary and later included on other Doors compilation DVDs. Organist Ray Manzarek later called the performance "A mother... all four Doors in perfect sympatico". The performance also features a rare filmed appearance of a bearded, yet still characteristically charismatic, Jim Morrison. (Morrison usually shaved off his beard for publicity shots and television appearances.)
Image:Soft Parade.jpeg
Still from the rare performance.

The suite in its entirety was not performed often after the PBS taping, but the 'Petition The Lord With Prayer' monologue was recited at later shows.

WHO SCARED YOU?

This is one of only three non-album B-sides that the Doors released during their career. The other two are Don't Go No Farther(sic) and Tree Trunk.

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Info taken from allmusicguide and wikipedia
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